The Effect of Stress on PMS
Stress can worsen or contribute to PMS. This is because stress can delay ovulation, which can impact progesterone production. PMS symptoms can often be linked to imbalances in estrogen and progesterone. Progesterone has anti-anxiety effects due to its relationship with GABA, your natural relaxation mood chemical. It is important to understand ways to reduce stress and PMS symptoms because they are so tightly linked together.
Here are 4 ways to ease the effect of stress and PMS:
1. Nutrients
Many nutrient imbalances can affect stress levels and other hormone levels, so it is important to understand which nutrients can help decrease your stress and PMS symptoms.
B vitamins
B Complex contains a multitude of B vitamins that are nutrients for stress and PMS, specifically B6 and B12. Vitamin B6 is one of our essential water-soluble vitamins, and it plays a crucial role in brain development, cognitive function, and mood chemical production so it makes sense that if we are low or not getting enough through the food we can experience an internal stress response. B6 can also help to balance estrogen and progesterone levels and adrenal function, which regulates cortisol, our stress hormone. Homocysteine is an amino acid produced when proteins are broken down, but at elevated levels, it is called hyperhomocysteinemia which is damaging. These high levels are not good for the body because it can degrade the arterial lining, and increase stress levels. Additionally, vitamin B6 has very beneficial effects on hormone levels because it aids in estrogen metabolism. When there is too much estrogen in the blood this causes estrogen dominance, which when prolonged can cause stress, fatigue, and anxiety inflammation.
Vitamin B12 is another one of the nutrients for stress and PMS in the B complex. Vitamin B12 is another one of the most common deficiencies in America with about 50% of the population being deficient. Similar to B6, B12 has many functions in numerous metabolic reactions in the body. A study found that B12 deficient mice had increased anxiety and learning deficits compared to the control group. This is due to a similar mechanism in vitamin B6, where B12 influences the clearance of homocysteine in the blood.
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Healthy fat
Healthy fats are another one of the nutrients which aid in improving stress and PMS. It has been shown that healthy fat consumption, specifically polyunsaturated fats, was associated with increased progesterone and decreased anovulation. This means that healthy fats are a hormone balancing food by increasing ovulation and fertility. As a result, in order to ovulate you can’t have high-stress levels, so this shows that eating enough healthy fats will decrease cortisol production.
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Vitamin C
Vitamin C is one of the vitamins for hormone balance to aid in stress and PMS. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that has antioxidant attributes that allow it to reduce stress and inflammation which benefits stress and PMS. A study found that vitamin C was associated with higher progesterone levels in perimenopausal women when typically they would be low. Additionally, another study found that pregnancy rates increased and progesterone levels increased in those who supplemented with vitamin C and had luteal phase defect (shortened luteal phase).
Zinc
Zinc helps to support the menstrual cycle, making it one of the great nutrients for stress and PMS. Zinc deficiency can occur during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Zinc has been shown to help improve PMS symptoms and is crucial for stable moods so it can be helpful if you experience anxiety with PMS.
Magnesium
Across the nation, about 68% of Americans are found to consume less than the recommended daily intake of magnesium, many of these cases go unrecognized in clinical medicine because levels are rarely evaluated. Magnesium plays a crucial role in the production of your hormones and can help to balance the stress response as one of the nutrients for stress and PMS. Magnesium is a mineral responsible for over 300 metabolic reactions within the body. In addition, you can think of magnesium as our calming and relaxing mineral. It helps to loosen tight muscles, maintain the health of our muscle tissue, including the heart – the most important muscle, prevent migraine headaches, balance blood sugar, and ease the stress response. The effect on stress is due to our brain’s sensitivity to magnesium, specifically the limbic–hypothalamus-pituitary–adrenocortical axis which controls emotions, and our nervous system. Magnesium can also reduce the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone from the pituitary gland in the brain, and this hormone controls the production of cortisol in your adrenal glands. By consuming magnesium you decrease the internal stress response.
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2. Stress Tools
Stress tools can really improve stress and PMS. Meditation is a great stress tool, shown to reduce how you react to daily stressors. Even a short 3-5 minute meditation is a great way to clear out any stuck energy from the day. Meditation allows your brain to calm down and enter a state where theta waves are predominant. When we are awake and alert our brain has beta waves. Alpha waves bridge beta to theta. Theta waves are where we experience deep relaxation. Try the app Insight Timer. There are some great meditations for sleep that can help you to relax before bed.
Other stress tools include journaling, movement, sleep, and setting clear boundaries for yourself. Setting these boundaries means that you know how much you can manage a certain stressor before you need a mental break. Allowing yourself to have boundaries means you are prioritizing your health and your stress levels.
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3. Sleep
Making sleep a priority is one of the ways to manage stress and PMS. When we wake up in the morning, we get a burst of cortisol to allow us to be motivated to start the day and to get out of bed, and as the day goes on the cortisol will decrease to normal levels so that you feel tired by the end of the day. At this time, your cortisol levels should be at their lowest point. Many women do not have this cycle of cortisol because if you are not getting enough sleep or not getting enough quality of sleep this can inhibit cortisol from dropping throughout the day, and it can cause a spike to occur before bed. A cortisol spike in the evening may be behind your inability to fall asleep, nighttime racing thoughts, or insomnia. Luckily there are easy ways to manage stress. To make sleep a priority, you should aim to make a comfortable sleep environment and practice a pre-sleep routine every night when possible. Having a comfortable space to sleep includes having a proper temperature, blackout curtains or an eye mask, and comfortable sleepwear. All of these factors mean that you are prioritizing sleep to get the most quality out of it. Optimally aim for 7-9 hours and to cut screen time down 1-2 hours before bed to incorporate a wind-down routine.
4. Gentle Movement
Incorporating gentle movement of any kind throughout your day is another one of the ways to manage stress and PMS. Your movement can be yoga, walking, dancing, light resistance training, running etc. Whatever feels best for you and is easy to stay consistent with is what you should do! It is important to note how you feel after you exercise to know if it's right for you. Especially with cardio, notice if you feel energized afterward or if you feel sluggish and depleted. If you are feeling the latter it may be time to scale back on intensity. Exercise has been proven to help decrease stress levels overall, and help you manage other daily stressors better than if you were not exercising.
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